Hello Readers!

It's good to be back and I hope you are all doing great!

After two weeks of real hectic work in college and also having moved out of home embracing independent living, this is the first clay mini I made outside of home, outside of my workspace for 6 years. It took some time to overcome the art block and settle into the new transit workspace and lifestyle, and I am so excited to be sharing with you a real simple and easy to make miniature piece: a bowl of ramen!

Supplies

For this small project (pun intended) you will need the following:

Supplies

Polymer clay: The specific colours and brands I used are listed down step wise below. Liquid Clay: I used
Liquid Clay: I used Fimo Liquid gel for the soup part as it is transparent. TLS (Translucent Liquid Sculpey) I used in a few places. This completely optional, you can make do with Fimo gel as well. I have listed some alternatives below.
- Resin is a nice professional option but remains to be quite messy and hard to clean. I am quite lazy when it comes to resin work so I try to make do with literally anything else.
- Gel wax is easy to use (check out my Mini Stew to see how I use it). The only problem is the gel might flow out if the piece isn't stored upright as it doesnt solidify.
- Mod Podge Dimensional magic is another option but I havent personally experimented with it much.
Wooden coffee stirrers: These work nice as they are firm enough to hold shape but soft enough to cut by hand. Balsa wood sheet I use is usually too soft if cut so thin.
Acrylic paints: Mostly browns and blacks. I used Van Dyke Brown and Burnt Sienna.
Soft Pastels: Again, Mostly you will need browns for the shading and a little green accents for the leafy parts as well.
Talcum Powder: To prevent the clay from sticking. You can choose to use potato starch or corn starch as well.

Tools

X-acto or detail knife: a handle-less blade works well as an alternative
Needle tool: Just a long needle or a toothpick could work
Ball tool: A glass marble the size of your bowl could be used A thin long metal rod or needle
A rolling pin: I use the body of my knife or any tool lying about.
Tweezer: They help in accurately placing the ingredients without things getting too messy.
Old soft bristle toothbrush: I use one that is meant for sensitive tooth. Toothbrushes meant for kids can be used as well.

And that's all folks! Once you have them ready, we can begin the real fun!

Step 1: The Bowl 🍽️

For the bowl, I used FIMO Taupeas I quite like the warm grey colour and felt it would go well with the ramen inside. I did a light marble effect as well to make the bowl more interesting.

Step:

Choose your base colour and condition the clay well. As I am using this particular clay after a while, it was a bit brittle and needed kneading and smoothening to be workable, I usually chop up dry clay into small bits and then roll it with a rolling pin folding it over after every roll. A couple of rounds like this followed by hand kneading makes it real good to go.
Choose an accent colour for the marbling effect. I chose black. Add small rolled out snakes or flattened pieces to the base colout and roll it. Twist and chop and roll for a nice marbled texture. (This is optional)
Roll out the clay to your desired thickness. Too thick and it will not have the finesse of a nice miniature and too thin and it will tear. Take time to roll out what works for you.
Pick the ball tool according to how big or small you want your bowl to be. Coat it well with powder. Rubb some powder on clay sheet as well.
Gently drape the sheet over the ball tool and press it down gently with your fingers until it take the form of the ball below.
To trim the excess, place the detail knife at the point based on how deep you want the bowl to be and while keeping the blade steady, rotate the ball tool gently until the cut completes.
Pop out the bowl onto a flat surface and using the end of your knife, flatted the base (it will be a smooth hemisphere before this)
Put it on the baking tray and keep aside for prebaking.

It's okay if it takes a few tries to get this step right and satisfactory. Be patient! The food looks good if its in a tableware that looks good!

Step 2: The Glazed Ham and Chicken 🥩

You can choose what you would like to put in your ramen bowl. I decided to put some glazed ham slices and shredded chicken for the meat and of course soft boiled eggs. Here is how I made them.

Glazed Ham:

Mix the light pink colour of the ham inside. I used a lot of Fimo White to which i added little bits of Fimo Flamingo, Premo Red and a teeny tinge of orange. Be careful while mixing the colours as we need a real light pink and the white very easily gets overwhelmed with colours. Add small quantities to the white until you reach the shade you like
Roll it into a fat snake the diameter corresponding to the size of the slices you want. Press the sides gently to make it a bit cuboidal.
With a dry brush, shade the sides of the roll with warm browns. I like the orangish brown i have in my set and I added some darker tones to places more well cooked.
Using the detail knife, slice out thin slices of ham. It is okay if it squishes when you cut it. We can always reshape it later to make it more squarish.
Gently, run the brush side ways to get the meat texture, Change the pressure on the basis of how strong you want the lines. I used a small ball tool to add some cuts and details
Add it to the baking tray alongside the bowl to prebake

After the ham, let's make
Shredded Chicken:

Mix the colour of the cooked chicken. I used Fimo taupe with white and a tinge of light pink from the ham.
Roll out a thin sheet and cut out wiggly shapes with the detail knife.
Remove the excess clay. With the tip of your finger smoothen the cut edges by gently pressing it. Use powder if you want to avoid finger prints.
Texture this the same way we did the ham. Using the needle tool, give it some curves and twists and place it on the tray.

Step 3: The Egg 🥚

The halved eggs add some nice colour to the composition with the sunny orange and the white. Let's make some.

Egg:

Start with the yolk colour. I used some parts of Fimo orange mixed with some Premo chrome yellow. For the egg white I added some Premo translucent clay to Fimo white.
- TIP: Be real careful while handling white clay as it can get dirty very easily. I avoid the dust and dirt by cleaning the working surface before using white with alcohol based sanitizer and using a flat knife tool and avoiding direct contact with my fingers.
Roll out the the yolk into a small snake. Wrap a sheet of white around it keeping one side thicker and pointed. Slice out pieces of the cane and flatten against a smooth base.
Using the needle tool, outline the yolk gently and add texture around the edge where the white meets the orange.
Keep it aside for prebaking. Some details will be added after assembly.

Moving on to the greens and noodles.

Step 4: The Bok Choy and Mushrooms 🍄

Bok Choy or Pak Choi is a type of Chinese cabbage and I decided to add some of it to bring in some green into the colour palette along with some interesting texture. The button mushrooms sliced in cute crosses seemed better in my head than in the bowl but I have shared it either ways in case someone would like to give it a shot!

Bok Choy:

Start with mixing a shade of dark green. I used some unbranded emerald clay with Fimo Olive and a touch of Nara brown.
Roll out the clay into a very thin sheet. Add some powder to the base before rolling the sheet out so it doesnt stick.
Cut thin strips by running the blade along the sheet. But do not peel it off straight.
Placing the knife below the the strip lift the clay in intervals to get a crinkly sort of effect. Experiment with the speed to get your desirable crinks.
Keep it aside for prebaking.

Mushrooms:

Roll out small balls of a light beige colour. Flatten it on a smooth base with a powdered finger tip.
With the detail knife, make some cross impressions on the top.
Dust it with some light brown soft pastels for colour and highlights.

Moving on to the main part: the noodles!

Step 5: The Noodles and Spring Onions 🧅

The noodles of course happens to be the hardest step to master. Ha! It is the easiest and most satisfying. Spring onions where a bit tricky and it balances out the noodle making part!

Spring Onions:

We will need some real light green for this. I added very little Fimo Green Apple and Fimo Olive to some white and more of Premo translucent. This gives a delicious light see-through delicate green.
The translucent clay helps rolling out the mixed clay really thin. Remember to use powder whenever needed.
Wrap the sheet around a needle of desire width (like a kabab) and roll it to smoothen the ends. Make sure its a metal needle and check your oven instructions before putting it in (like you can't put metal into microwaves). We will be prebaking this on the needle.
Once prebaked, cut thin rings by running the blade around it and slide it off the needle which acts as a support.

At this stage, stick the tray with all the elements into the oven and bake it at the temperature specified for your clay. Don't bake it the full length yet as we will do that after the assembly. Prebaking helps retain the form of the elements while we put together the entire piece. I baked mine for about 10 minutes at 130 degree Celsius in an OTG (oven toaster grill)..

While that bakes, let's make the noodles.

Noodles:

Start with a light dough colour clay. I mixed some Premo Ecru and a teeny bit of Premo Chrome yellow to loads of Fimo White.
Cut out tiny balls of of the dough and roll it into thin snakes of desired width. Use powder whenever required to ensure the clay doesnt stick and the snakes are rolled out evenly.
Do not prebake these. We will bake it directly after assembly.

The putting together now!

Step 6: Assembly

Now that we have all the meats and eggs and veggies and noodles ready on the tiny kitchen counter and a bowl ready to be filled, why wait?

Assembly:

We will be using the soup to hold the assembly in place. Begin with a big dollop of liquid Fimo. Add some brown pigments to it by scraping it off dry pastels with a blade.
Mix it with the needle tool and add it to bowl drop by drop.
- TIP: I like mixing a little amount of darker colour than I need and then after putting it to the bowl, adding some fresh gel and mixing it directly there to dilute it. I feel it gives a better effect and leads to less wastage.
Once you have enough amount of the soup in the bowl(you cant add more later without submerging the details!), begin by adding the noodles.
Swirl the thin snakes on the needle tool and drop it gently into the soupy bit. Don't submerge it completely as it will sink a little on its own and we do not want to go completely under and unnoticeable.
Once the noodle is in place, go around adding the other elements. I followed the order: Buk choy, ham, chicken, mushroom, egg and spring onions. This will depend on the composition or arrangement you would like.
Remember to work carefully but fast at this stage as liquid clay can get messy and is not very forgiving.
Bake it quick after the assembly to prevent the elements from sinking in too much and ruining the composition.

Additional details:

Chopsticks: Cut a thin rectangular strip from a wooden coffee stirrer. Cut through the centre but only partially to get the unsplit chopsticks. I added some red accent on the end before glue-ing it to the bowl
Bowl: You can paint the rim of the bowl with a darker shade of the base colour to create some accents. I used black acrylic.
Egg: For a more realistic soft boil, mix some of the yolk colour with TLS and add it to the yolk of the baked egg slice to make it seem more juicy. You can add a thin layer white clay mixed with TLS to the egg white part as well.

And we are Done!

Step 7: Congratulations!

If you have made it this far, a big congratulations on having completed a cute cute clay project!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it! I will be uploading a video of the assembly on my Instagram so do check it out here. Let me know in the comments if you have any doubts, clarifications or stories about this project! I would love to hear <3

Until next time,

~Ahona